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So: "These results support the potential of creating a quick, accurate and widely accessible method for differentiating risks between ASD [autism spectrum disorder] and ADHD [attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder]."That was a conclusion reached in the paper by Marlena Duda and colleagues [1] (open-access) building on their previous foray into this important research area (see here). Last time around [2] this research group - the Duda/Wall et al research combination - set t........ Read more »

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Why treat hypoglycemia with 10% dextrose (D10), rather than the more expensive, potentially more harmful, and less available traditional treatment of 50% dextrose (D50)? Why not? The only benefit of 50% dextrose appears to be that it is what people are used to using, but aren't we used to starting IVs (IntraVenous lines) and running fluids through the IVs? ... Read more »

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For bumblebees, big cities are a bummer. Layers of?asphalt, concrete, brick and metal add up to?fewer places for the insects to nest. But one big city—Detroit—reverses that trend. That means shrinking cities might be a growing opportunity for at-risk pollinators.

Bumblebees (species with?the genus name?Bombus) are, like other bees, in trouble. Their numbers and diversity are decreasing across North America. Other native wild bees—the insects that have been living here and pollinatin........ Read more »

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And it doesn’t really matter if the expert is male or female, if they are young or old, and they can be any ethnicity! In other words, said the researchers—the variables we have read so much about (i.e., gender, age, ethnicity) are not as notable as whether someone “looks like” our stereotype of a “good […]... Read more »

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"Black women from East Africa had more than 3.5 times the odds of autism spectrum disorder with intellectual disability in their children than Caucasian nonimmigrant women."So said the study results reported by Jenny Fairthorn and colleagues [1] (open-access available here) providing yet more evidence for the need for much greater scrutiny as to why children of immigrant parents from East Africa are seemingly at higher risk of 'more severe' autism than other groups (see here and see here).B........ Read more »

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More targeted concussion education for high school athletes with a history of concussion is needed. Athletes with more prior concussions, especially negative experiences, are less likely to disclose symptoms, more likely to play with symptoms, and have poorer attitudes regarding concussion reporting.... Read more »

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"Adults and children with CFS/ME [chronic fatigue syndrome / myalgic encephalomyelitis] have greater health care needs than the rest of the population for at least ten years before their diagnosis, and these higher levels of health care resource use continue for at least ten years after diagnosis."So concluded the study published by Simon Collin and colleagues [1] (open-access available here) who once again (see here) relied on data derived from the "Clinical Practice Research Datalink........ Read more »

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If you are young(er) you likely know precisely what vocal fry means and if you are old(er)—probably not so much. It is a cultural phenomenon seen primarily (but not only) in young(er) women as described at the Mental Floss website: “Vocal fry describes a specific sound quality caused by the movement of the vocal folds. […]... Read more »

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"Our study indicated that the use of ART [assisted reproductive technology] may [be] associated with higher risk of ASD [autism spectrum disorder] in the offspring. However, further prospective, large, and high-quality studies are still required."So said the results of the meta-analysis published by Liang Lui and colleagues [1] (open-access) surveying the peer-reviewed research literature - "11 records (3 cohort studies and 8 case-control studies)" - between 2006 and 201........ Read more »

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Good looking, sociable people don't make good scientists, according to popular stereotypes.

This is one of the findings of an interesting new study of how scientists are perceived, from British researchers Ana I. Gheorghiu and colleagues.

Gheorghiu et al. took 616 pictures of scientists, which they downloaded from the faculty pages at various universities. They gave the portraits to two sets of raters. The first group were asked to rate the attractiveness of the portraits and to say whet... Read more »

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Nothing would be more interesting than reading a book on men aging by the author who is an expert on comparative male life histories. Richard G. Bribiescas is a Professor of Anthropology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University, and has conducted research in evolutionary biology and endocrinology of human, as well as comparative studies […]... Read more »

Pazhoohi, F. (2017) Book Review: How Men Age: What Evolution Reveals about Male Health and Mortality. Frontiers in Psychology. info:/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00894

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'Low dose' has been a feature of my autism research reading this week; first starting with the results from Dan Quintana and colleagues [1] talking about some important effects following intranasal delivery of low dose oxytocin and then moving on to the primary reason for this entry with results from Robert Naviaux and colleagues [2] (open-access) continuing a research theme looking at suramin and autism (see here for some background).For those interested in the oxytocin-autism research bas........ Read more »

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Scholarly communication available online, whether in journals or repositories, adds up to millions, and this figure grows every year. What browser efficient tools are available to researchers, librarians, students, and the like to find the open-access versions of the articles that interest them? … Read More →... Read more »

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Functional magnetic resonance imaging yields improvement in our understanding of brain development.A recent study out of the University of Pennsylvania is a good example. This study examined the relationship between brain connectivity and the development of cognitive executive function.The researchers imaged a group of 882 subjects between the ages of 8 and 22.Brain connectivity patterns were compared with a neurocognitive assessment of executive function. Executive function increases with age t........ Read more »

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There are economic studies that show that attractive people earn more money and, conversely, unattractive earn less money. I’m pretty sure that I’ve heard something along those lines before, but I had no idea they were called the “beauty premium” and the “ugliness penalty.” How wonderful and sad at the same time. But while these seem like pretty commonplace ideas, there is no real evidence as to why they exist. A new paper published in the Journal of Business and Psychology tested th........ Read more »

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Do you want to know the future? You may want to say it all depends on which aspects of your future. Typically, while we seek information routinely to make decisions in our day-to-day lives, we don’t always want to know for sure what will happen in our futures. These researchers remind us about the story […]... Read more »

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Tuberous sclerosis (TSC) is an inherited tumour syndrome that shares clinical similarities with Birt-Hogg-Dube Syndrome. It is caused by mutations in TSC1 or TSC2 that lead to aberrant activation of mTOR, affecting multiple organs, including the kidney and lung. In the kidney, lesions such as multiple renal cysts and renal cell carcinoma (RCC) can occur. Tumour reduction in TSC patients after treatment with rapamycin, an inhibitor of mTOR, is partial and reversible probably due to feedback activ........ Read more »